Playback Enhancement in Audio Systems

1. An audio system comprising: an input configured to receive audio content; an output configured to playback audio in a listening environment; one or more microphones configured to detect environmental acoustic signals in the listening environment; and at least one processor coupled to the input and to the output, the at least one processor configured to determine an environmental noise signal based on the detected environmental acoustic signals in the listening environment, select a portion of the audio content to be enhanced relative to other portions of the audio content, calculate an intelligibility metric of the selected portion using the environmental noise signal, calculate a reference intelligibility metric based at least in part upon the audio content and a reference environment, wherein the reference intelligibility metric represents an intelligibility that would exist if the audio content were reproduced in the reference environment, determine an enhancement based at least in part upon a comparison of the intelligibility metric to the reference intelligibility metric, apply the enhancement to the selected portion to provide an enhanced portion, and combine the enhanced portion with the other portions of the audio content for playback via the output.

2. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the selected the portion is dialogue and the intelligibility metric is a speech intelligibility metric of the selected portion relative to the other portions of the audio content.

3. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the selected portion is based upon at least one of i) a center channel of the audio content or ii) a correlated portion of left and right channels of the audio content.

4. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the selected portion is selected from a specific frequency band, wherein the specific frequency band is a speech or vocal frequency band.

5. The audio system of claim 1, further comprising an echo canceller coupled to the one or more microphones to reduce or remove the audio from the output when determining the environmental noise signal.

6. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the enhancement includes at least one of a gain or an equalization component applied to the selected portion.

7. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the audio system is one of a home media system, a soundbar system, a portable speaker, a headphone or headset system, an automotive audio system, or a speakerphone system.

8. A method of enhancing a portion of audio content playback by an audio system in a listening environment, the method comprising: receiving the audio content; detecting, using one or more microphones of the audio system, environmental acoustic signals in the listening environment; determining an environmental noise signal based on the detected environmental acoustic signals; selecting the portion of the audio content to be enhanced relative to other portions of the audio content; calculating an intelligibility metric of the selected portion using the environmental noise signal; calculating a reference intelligibility metric based at least in part upon the audio content and a reference environment, wherein the reference intelligibility metric represents an intelligibility that would exist if the audio content were reproduced in the reference environment; determining an enhancement based at least in part upon a comparison of the intelligibility metric to the reference intelligibility metric; applying the enhancement to the selected portion to provide an enhanced portion; and combining the enhanced portion with the other portions of the audio content for playback via an output of the audio system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected the portion is dialogue and the intelligibility metric is a speech intelligibility metric of the selected portion relative to the other portions of the audio content.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected portion is based upon at least one of i) a center channel of the audio content or ii) a correlated portion of left and right channels of the audio content.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected portion is selected from a specific frequency band, wherein the specific frequency band is a speech or vocal frequency band.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising reducing or removing, using an echo canceller coupled to the one or more microphones, the audio from the output when determining the environmental noise signal.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the enhancement includes at least one of a gain or an equalization component applied to the selected portion.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the audio system is one of a home media system, a soundbar system, a portable speaker, a headphone or headset system, an automotive audio system, or a speakerphone system.

15. The audio system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: calculate an enhanced metric that includes an estimated or actual metric value representing an improvement achieved by the applied enhancement to the selected portion, and adjust the applied enhancement in response to the enhanced metric deviating from the reference intelligibility metric by a threshold.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising: calculating an enhanced metric that includes an estimated or actual metric value representing an improvement achieved by the applied enhancement to the selected portion, and adjusting the applied enhancement in response to the enhanced metric deviating from the reference intelligibility metric by a threshold.

17. The audio system of claim 15, wherein the applied enhancement includes a gain applied to the selected portion, wherein the adjustment to the applied enhancement is determined by multiplying the selected portion by a square of the gain applied to the selected portion.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the applied enhancement includes a gain applied to the selected portion, wherein the adjustment to the applied enhancement is determined by multiplying the selected portion by a square of the gain applied to the selected portion.

19. An audio system comprising: an input configured to receive audio content; an output configured to playback audio in a listening environment; one or more microphones configured to detect environmental acoustic signals in the listening environment; and at least one processor coupled to the input and to the output, the at least one processor configured to determine an environmental noise signal based on the detected environmental acoustic signals in the listening environment, select a portion of the audio content to be enhanced relative to other portions of the audio content, wherein the selected portion is dialogue, calculate an intelligibility metric of the selected portion using the environmental noise signal, wherein the intelligibility metric is a speech intelligibility metric of the selected portion relative to the other portions of the audio content, calculate a reference intelligibility metric based at least in part upon the audio content and a reference environment, wherein the reference intelligibility metric represents an intelligibility that would exist if the audio content were reproduced in the reference environment, determine a gain to be applied to the selected portion based at least in part upon a comparison of the intelligibility metric to the reference intelligibility metric, calculate an enhanced metric that includes an estimated or actual metric value representing an improvement achieved by the gain to the selected portion, adjust the gain in response to the enhancement metric deviating from the reference intelligibility metric by a threshold to provide an adjusted gain, apply the adjusted gain to the selected portion to provide an enhanced portion, and combine the enhanced portion with the other portions of the audio content for playback via the output.

20. The audio system of claim 19, wherein calculating the enhanced metric and providing the adjusted gain are performed iteratively until a difference in the enhancement metric and the reference intelligibility metric satisfies the threshold.